Elly joined CTPSR in June 2016, having received her PhD from the University of Birmingham the previous year. Her work draws on urban planning, political geography and conflict resolution in order to better understand how people and the environments they live in are affected by conflict or natural disaster, and how we can use this information in order to ‘build back better’ following times of crisis. Her doctoral research examined the case of Osh (Kyrgyzstan) and investigated how the physical reconstruction of the city following violence there in 2010 had affected the diverse communities that share the city.

Elly has worked for a variety of organisations outside academia, including the UK Delegation to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in Paris, the campaigning organization Global Witness, and as a consultant representing civil society organisations within the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (the organisation established to prevent the trade in conflict diamonds). She has organised and participated in sessions at numerous international meetings and conferences, and has carried out research in Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia. At the present time Elly is carrying out research into the links between post-disaster and post-conflict reconstruction in Sri Lanka and Nepal, and into how the urban environment can promote reconciliation in the Former Yugoslavia.

Urban geography; Collective Memory; Natural resource governance; Post-conflict reconstruction; post-disaster reconstruction; Kyrgyzstan; Central Asia.

I am fascinated by the mutually reinforcing relationship between people and the places they live and, in particular, what happens to this relationship in times of conflict. I see the process of rebuilding following violence or natural disaster as an important opportunity to address root causes of social conflict, and my research seeks to understand how we can use this opportunity to improve the lives of vulnerable and conflict affected populations.